Canada's Jones, Jacobs off to strong start in curling

Canada skip Jennifer Jones yells after throwing her rock while playing against China in the second end during the 2014 Sochi Winter Olympics in Sochi, Russia on Monday. Canada won 9-2. (NATHAN DENETTE / THE CANADIAN PRESS)

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SOCHI, Russia - Canada is off and running in the Olympic curling event with a pair of wins Monday as Jennifer Jones and Brad Jacobs led their crews to victory.

Jones drilled China’s Bingyu Wang 9-2 in seven ends while Jacobs needed his last rock to take an 11-8 win over Germany’s Felix Schulze.

"We’re really proud of that start," said Jones, who scored three in the fifth end to move ahead 6-1 and then three more in the seventh for a 9-2 score that Wang deemed insurmountable.

Jacobs led 9-8 coming home and scored two after a great throw by Winnipegger and third Ryan Fry to set up a deuce in the 10th.

"It wasn’t pretty. It was rough but we got better as the game went on and we’ll need to build on this," said Jacobs.

Jones is done for the day but the men will play again meeting Switzerland. Jacobs threw 82 per cent in the morning draw and the men were 78 per cent as a whole.

Jones was on the beam curling 96 per cent and the women were a solid 90 per cent across the board.

"This was an exciting day for us and it was fun to begin our Olympics," said Jones.

For Fry, this was in many ways just another day on the ice.

"We got up early and all four of us were in the gym by 6 a.m. getting our legs loose. Then it was breakfast chased by some Red Bull and we cranked the house music," said Fry. "We wanted to stick to our usual routine."

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About Gary Lawless

Gary Lawless is the Free Press sports columnist and co-host of the Hustler and Lawless show on TSN 1290 Winnipeg and www.winnipegfreepress.com
Lawless began covering sports as a rookie reporter at The Chronicle-Journal in Thunder Bay after graduating from journalism school at Durham College in Ontario.
After a Grey Cup winning stint with the Toronto Argonauts in the communications department, Lawless returned to Thunder Bay as sports editor.
In 1999 he joined the Free Press and after working on the night sports desk moved back into the field where he covered pro hockey, baseball and football beats prior to being named columnist.